THE MOBILE ECONOMY

2016

The digital transformation we are witnessing

across most industry sectors and throughout the
world presents a clear opportunity for players
from across the mobile ecosystem. The challenge
is to seize the opportunity and to respond
through service innovation.
Against the backdrop of a renewed and flexible regulatory environment, consumers and society
as a whole will reap the benefits of significant technological and socio-economic development.

Mobile is pivotal to the global economy, both as an industry

in itself and an enabler for adjacent sectors and services.

Unique subscribers
2015

4.7bn

63% PENETRATION RATE

2020

5.6bn
72% PENETRATION RATE

Contribution to GDP
2015

$3.1tn
4.2% GDP

2020

$3.7tn

Connections (excl M2M)

2015

7.3bn

99%
PENETRATION
RATE

2020

8.9bn

114% PENETRATION RATE

Capital expenditure
Total capex from 2010 -2015

$883bn
Total capex from 2015-2020
forecast at

$899bn

ACCELERATING MOVES TO MOBILE BROADBAND NETWORKS

AND SMARTPHONE ADOPTION
Mobile broadband
connections to increase
from 47% of total in 2015 to

By 2020, there will be

Data traffic to grow

by a CAGR of

5.8bn 49%

71%

smartphones, growth of 2.6bn

from the end of 2015

by 2020

over the period 20152020

MOBILE CONTRIBUTING TO ECONOMIC AND

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT ACROSS THE WORLD

Delivering digital inclusion to the

still unconnected populations
Mobile internet penetration
2015: 44% | 2020: 60%

Delivering financial inclusion to

the unbanked populations
270 live services in 90 countries
as of December 2015

Delivering innovative new

services and apps
Number of M2M connections
to reach 1bn by 2020

Policymakers all over the world are working to implement reforms that will protect
competition and consumers without impeding social and economic progress. In most markets,
regulatory policies and institutions need to be reviewed, and potentially overhauled

A SUCCESSFUL REGULATORY APPROACH WOULD FOLLOW THREE PRINCIPLES:

Technology-agnostic:

A clean-slate
approach

Bottom-up

Regulation needs to
accommodate rapid changes in
markets, technologies and
business models, while
ensuring sufficient regulatory
confidence for companies to
take risks.

Regulatory reform should

follow a bottom-up approach
that takes entirely new
approaches into
consideration.

1 2 3

Regulation should be
technology-agnostic and
achieve its objective in the
most efficient way regardless
of the technologies, industry
structures or legacy regulatory
regimes.

Opportunity

Following these principles should ensure a new regulatory framework will apply
consistently to all elements of the digital ecosystem, regardless of the technology or
business model in use. As well as being cost-effective, it will be flexible because it will
allow markets and technologies to evolve while preserving and enhancing regulators
ability to achieve their objectives.
This is an extract from The Mobile Economy 2016
gsmamobileeconomy.com/2016/global